{"id":31035,"date":"2019-12-18T11:43:46","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T11:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=31035"},"modified":"2019-12-18T11:43:50","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T11:43:50","slug":"the-era-of-the-smart-city-has-begun-and-connectivity-is-essential-to-its-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/12\/18\/the-era-of-the-smart-city-has-begun-and-connectivity-is-essential-to-its-success\/","title":{"rendered":"The era of the Smart City has begun, and connectivity is essential to its success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

According to Vino Govender: Executive for Strategy, Mergers and Acquisition and Strategy at Dark Fibre Africa, reliable and low-latency fibre connectivity underpin the success of the Smart City<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across Africa, rural populations continue to migrate into the cities, seeking out work, education and better lives. It\u2019s a steady influx of individuals that puts increasing pressure on ageing infrastructure and creaking systems that already battle with the weight of a growing population. Already, more than half of the world\u2019s population lives in urban areas, with that number expected to reach 80% by 2050. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

City leaders, public sector authorities and private entities are rapidly realising the value of investing in infrastructure and applications that will improve the capabilities of cities and leverage existing technologies to build intelligent networks and solutions. The era of the Smart City has begun, and connectivity is essential to its success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smart Cities are intelligent\nand connected ecosystems that collate and analyse vast quantities of data spun\nout by a complex network of sensors, devices, systems, software and platforms.\nThey streamline services from waste disposal and power to traffic, road maintenance,\nand ambulances, improving quality of life for residents and focusing on a more\nsustainable future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not a trend \u2013 a recent study conducted by Grand View Research revealed a global Smart City market that\u2019s growing at a phenomenal rate, with an anticipated value of US$237.6 billion by 2025.\u00a0 This is not alone statistical voice, either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frost & Sullivan\u2019s Smart\nCity report expects the Smart City market to exceed US$2 trillion by 2025.\nAlready solutions such as deep farming – underground farms that produce more\nfood than farms above ground \u2013 and smart lampposts, smart parking, smart meters\nand street sensors have been put in place to address the challenges that face\nurban environments and their burgeoning populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technology is capable, the\nsensors and Internet of Things (IoT) are increasingly cost effective, and the\nlong-term potential is undeniable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But one element underpins the\nsuccess of any Smart City or application – low-latency, reliable connectivity.\nThe truth is that most governments and municipalities do not have the budgets\nto invest in flashy, science-fiction-style Smart City solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solutions that will\ntransform services and cities, in reality, are those that upgrade, leverage and\nenhance existing infrastructure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fibre has already been\nimplemented in most city spaces and offers a reliable, low-latency and scalable\nfoundation from which to springboard sustainable Smart City solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason why connectivity,\nparticularly low-latency connectivity, is critical to the success of the Smart City\nis that it\u2019s the glue that holds the data, communication, IoT, networks and\nsystems together. If the Smart City is compared to human physiology,\nconnectivity is the blood and the veins. It\u2019s connectivity that ensures the\nvast volumes of data are collected from the endpoints across the city, that\nensures seamless flow of data to relevant systems for data analysis and interpretation\nand that allows for applications to leverage the data collected and analysed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connectivity works in parallel\nwith IT, IoT and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to collect and collate\nthe data and to use this data in ways that allow for the Smart City to\nconsistently evolve and improve. It supports the use of IT frameworks \u2013 the\nmachines and the sensors that comprise both the tech and the IoT networks \u2013 to\nensure that data is transmitted in real time to relevant endpoints and\nservices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fibre, 5G and Edge Computing\nwill provide the low-latency, always-on and reliable communication and data\ncapability required to ensure the seamless management of the city and its\nservices. This layer of connectivity must be solid, especially as connected\nvehicles and transport systems increasingly rely on these connections to\nfunction reliably and safely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Grandview Research report\nalso found that \u2018communication infrastructure and web-based services are\nanticipated to play a major role in the industry\u2019s stride toward global\nadoption.\u2019 This places fibre at the heart of the services, infrastructure, data\nand sensors that define the Smart City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fibre needs to become even\nmore pervasive than it is today to realise its potential within the growing Smart\nCity market, but it remains the most capable of providing the speed, latency\nand reliability that\u2019s needed to build truly intelligent ecosystems.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fat, fast fibre is the key\nthat unlocks the door to the Smart African City and reshapes how citizens and\ngovernment engage with a more sustainable and economically capable future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Vino Govender: Executive for Strategy, Mergers and Acquisition and Strategy at Dark Fibre Africa, reliable and low-latency fibre connectivity underpin the success of the Smart City. Across Africa, rural populations continue to migrate into the cities, seeking out work, education and better lives. It\u2019s a steady influx of individuals that puts increasing pressure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":31036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,6,399,38,382,10675],"tags":[871,1102,12087,7366,916,791,974,7472,7473,12086,12093,155,390,1000,12088,12090,12089,12091,12085],"class_list":["post-31035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-insights","category-more-news","category-networking","category-telecom","category-thought-leadership","tag-5g","tag-dark-fibre-africa","tag-deep-farming","tag-edge-computing","tag-fibre","tag-fibre-connectivity","tag-frost-sullivan","tag-geographical-information-systems","tag-gis","tag-grand-view-research","tag-grandview-research","tag-internet-of-things","tag-iot","tag-smart-city","tag-smart-lampposts","tag-smart-meters","tag-smart-parking","tag-street-sensors","tag-vino-govender"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31037,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31035\/revisions\/31037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}